How Radical Right Parties Shape the Mainstream Left

• In Event: Poster Session: Public Policy Preferences and Attitudes toward Democracy & European Politics and Society
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: European Politics and Society

Abstract

Burgeoning radical right support poses a dilemma for the mainstream left. In the popular narrative, center-left parties radicalize to the right on sociocultural issues to recoup disillusioned working-class voters. Yet this strategy risks losing the support of social liberals who disagree with the party's hard-right turn. How can the mainstream left respond to the radical right without jeopardizing the support of their two core constituencies? I argue that center-left parties resolve this dilemma by adopting right-wing sociocultural positions in only those districts where the radical right poses a threat. I employ dynamic ideal point models to estimate the sociocultural positions of candidates, drawing from comprehensive issue preference surveys that encompass the near-universe of candidates from recent national parliamentary elections in Denmark and Finland. In both countries, I find that district-level increases in radical right support are associated with center-left candidates radicalizing rightwards on sociocultural issues. These findings contribute to our understanding of how radical right parties affect the electoral strategies of other parties and highlight the importance of looking at the district level to discern these strategies.

Author

• Patrick James Edwards, Washington University in St. Louis